Dirty Pool

- Three months ago, inspectors rejected "the majority of [interior] walls with colored plaster ... [they were] blotchy and had cracks." Exterior walls were seamed with 10-foot-long cracks that, Alameida, the city architect on the project, says do not endanger the pool structurally but are cosmetically undesirable and may have resulted from improperly mixed concrete.

- Chiang's firm had trouble connecting the pool to the municipal water and sewer system because the pipes specified by the architect were the wrong size.

- For some reason, the painting contract for the MLK pool has caused great controversy and bitterness.

Jim Haugabook is an African-American painting contractor whose company, Golden Gate Painting and Decorating, was subcontracted to paint the pool. Sitting in a file cabinet in a trailer at the job site is a 2-inch-thick file stuffed with a paper trail of bitter correspondence between Chiang and Haugabook.

Simply put, Chiang blames Haugabook for causing months of delay. Haugabook admits to making some mistakes, including accidentally spraying paint where it was not wanted, but he disputes most of Chiang's charges. It was impossible to be on schedule, says Haugabook, when there was no real schedule. The painter refuses to quit, which would mean losing money. Instead, he struggles along day by day, squabbling with Chiang over who is to blame for what and when and where and how much.

The amazing plenitude of problems at the MLK pool did not go unnoticed. Some city employees, clearly, tried to do something about them. But that something, for some reason, just couldn't get done.

As a city architect, Don Alameida was responsible for managing the nuts and bolts of the MLK pool project. Clearly distressed by the fiasco, his attitude in interviews seemed to shift between weary resignation, abject apology, and fear that the pool disaster would damage his career.

"I am leaving Public Works at the end of July," he said earlier last month. "Obviously, this pool job is a contributing factor, but it's not the only reason; it's not just the pool. I want to leave the city in good grace, not to be a muckraker. But you can see why I'm looking for new employment; probably not with this city, though."

When asked whether city employees use technicalities to steer contracts to particular firms, Alameida turned thoughtful. "Maybe that's why I'm having so much grief," he mused. "Things have changed in the last few years. Every mayor has his own style. I do not know if there is any accountability in this system. I tried to work autonomously.

"I'm the fall guy now."

Alameida said that mistake number one on the pool job was the hiring of Chiang's firm, even though the company had botched the Richmond gym project, and had had a history of problems with subcontractors. "All the automation in the world could not save [Chiang's schedule]," Alameida said. "Nor all the city supervision, either."

Alameida said that he wanted to throw Chiang off the job a year ago. He was dissuaded from doing so by Department of Public Works Director Lee and City Engineer Kelly, who, he said, "kept the pool job under a microscope."

"I wanted to put the bonding company on notice, so that the bonding company could finish the job," Alameida sighed.

A contractor cannot bid on a Public Works job without buying insurance -- a performance bond that guarantees that, if the contractor must be fired for good cause, the bonding company will finish the job, at no extra cost to the city.

Tim Mikolajewski, a vice president of Safeco, the company that insured the King pool job, says that if San Francisco were to fire Chiang's firm, the bonding company would be bound to deliver a finished pool for the contract price. But until it was contacted for this story, Safeco did not know there were serious problems on the MLK pool job -- in no small part because city officials have hidden those problems from the bonding firm.

Safeco has been sending periodic "audit requests" to the city to determine if the pool is being completed on time, and if the contractor is paying subcontractors. Mikolajewski seemed unhappy to learn that the following words were handwritten across the top of Safeco's last audit request: "Do not reply -- file." He also was less than thrilled to learn, from a reporter, that subcontractors who claim they haven't been paid for work they've done on the pool have filed $102,000 in liens against Chiang's company, and the city.

"I am surprised that with Chiang being a year behind schedule, and with the liens, that the city would not reply to our audit request," says Mikolajewski. "Liens and delays are not positive signs. Our file has no record of substantial problems. We could stop the work, though. The sooner we find out, the less money it costs us to finish the job."

Kelly, the city engineer, gave this explanation of the bonding situation: "Six months ago a decision was made not to reply anymore to audit requests from bonding companies." He declined to elaborate.